Seniors bid adieu by Portland's call

By ANN TATKO
and BRAD YOUNG
Collegian Sports Writers

Every year on the day after the loss, sometime before lunch, the phone rings. Women's Basketball Coach Rene Portland will be on the other end, checking on her seniors, making sure they are all right and that they understand life does indeed go on, even though their Penn State careers do not.

"They're always taken back by that phone call because you don't get one until you're a senior," Portland said. "I let them know to keep in touch, and stop by, and . . . to put it in perspective. Nobody died."

On Monday, Missy Masley, Shelby Thayer and Carla Coleman had their turns, receiving the coach's fateful call. Their careers -- draped in blue and white, glorious victories and hard-to-swallow defeats -- had shockingly ended a day earlier when the Lady Lions lost to North Carolina State, 76-74, in the second round of the NCAA tournament.

"Right now, I can't see past the N.C. State loss," Coleman said.

It's hard to blame her. It ended a career that saw the guard start on two No. 1 teams, score more than 900 points and emerge from a career-threatening knee injury to become the Lady Lions' defensive stopper. Portland has watched this "city kid out of Pittsburgh" grow into a player who opted to blend into the woodwork, doing the little things the team needed to get by.

"Sure I didn't win a national title, and every senior athlete wants to win a national title," Coleman said. "But when I look back at my career, I really do feel satisfied."

So does Masley. The Farmington, N.Y., native ended her four years as a 1,000-point scorer, the 10th best rebounder in Lady Lion history and Homecoming queen. Her frequent smile and flaky, first-grade demeanor leave an impression on the mind that her stats cannot.

But for all the center has given the Penn State basketball community, she said it has given her much more in return.

"I love all my classes, I really do," said Masley, an academic All-American. "But (Lady Lion basketball) was better than any class I ever took up here. It taught me so much about life, how to deal with pressure, how to manage time."

And then there's Thayer. The guard only started three games in her career at Penn State. But she was never nipping at Portland's heels, complaining about the lack of playing time, begging to start.

"She just waited her time and was always understanding of the evaluation I made of her," Portland said. "She didn't gave me one headache in four years of playing here."

As the careers of Coleman, Masley and Thayer close, an era of Lady Lion basketball does as well. But on Monday, a new era began.

"You sit back immediately and start rehashing the should've, could've, would've," Portland said. "There's nothing you can do really -- the season's over. You just jump right on recruiting.

"If we just hold to tradition and work ethic we'll be fine again."

That tradition and work ethic now rests with the 10 Lady Lions returning next season.

Two All-Big Ten selections --forward Angie Potthoff and point guard Tina Nicholson -- lead the Lady Lions into the new era.

They are joined by guards Tiffany Longworth, Katina Mack, Jamie Parsons, Tara Macciocco and Jen Reimers. Post players Kim Calhoun, Stacey Hrivnak and Julie Jarosz will be back as well. It is a solid nucleus that will be aided by a strong recruiting class.

That nucleus has learned a lot through adversity. It was a season when a slew of injuries could not stop the Lady Lions from winning a second-consecutive conference title and the Big Ten tournament crown. It was a season that marked the continuing emergence of one star in Nicholson and the birth of another in Potthoff. Portland said she wants her players to remember all these things, what the season was -- not what it wasn't.

"I talked to Rene on the phone and she stressed that we don't get caught up in what happened at the end of the season," Potthoff said. "We have to look at what we did throughout the season and bring that back next year."